Category Archives: Idaho Wildlife Stories

An 11-year-old boy killed a bear at point-blank range last Wednesday night after it wouldn’t leave his family’s porch. The boy was at home with his younger sisters and after seeing the bear on the front porch and not being able to get it to leave, the boy retrieved a gun and killed the animal.

Fish and Game Conservation Officer Doug Peterson said the black bear had been a problem in the area near the county transfer station, and he and Fish and Game Officer Lauren Wednt had set up a trap earlier in the week.

“The bear had been hanging around and we got multiple complaint calls,” said Wendt. The bear had been getting into garbage cans and bird feeders in the area.

Peterson said officials may have had to put it down anyway. He said that in situations where the bear has been a problem around humans or threatens human safety, they usually don’t issue citations. “Human safety is a higher priority,” said Peterson. “We’re concerned with how bears are managed and we want to live in harmony with them.”The boy and his family are not in any trouble, and Peterson said he issued them a permit to keep the bear. Usually when a bear is put down by Fish and Game they sell the hide at a state auction, Peterson said.Peterson said the family reported the bear Thursday morning.Fish and Game trapped and euthanized another problem black bear about two weeks ago, after the bear reportedly let himself into a home.Peterson said it’s normal for the animals to move from higher elevations this time of year.“We don’t like to see them down this low,” said Peterson. “But it’s not uncommon.”

The Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact is an agreement that recognizes suspension of hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses in member states. This means that illegal activities in one state can affect a person’s hunting or fishing privileges in all participating states. Any person whose license privileges or rights are suspended in a member state may also be suspended in Idaho. If a person’s hunting, fishing, or trapping rights are suspended in Idaho, they may be suspended in member states as well. This cooperative interstate effort will enhance the Division of Wildlife’s ability to protect and manage our wildlife resources.

The Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact also establishes a process whereby wildlife law violations by a non-resident from a member state are handled as if the person were a resident, meaning they can be served a ticket rather than being arrested, booked, and bonded. This process is a convenience for hunters, fishermen, and trappers of member states, and increases efficiency of Wildlife Officers by allowing more time for enforcement duties rather than violator processing procedures.

If a person plans to hunt, fish, or trap in another state, and they have a license suspension in Idaho, it is their responsibility to contact the other state to see if they can legally hunt, fish, or trap there.

My arms and legs tingled with anticipation as I walked the short trail down the river. It was a beautiful fall morning and the river section I had selected only had a couple of anglers in sight. The two anglers were poached on a couple of boulders on the far side of the river just below the dam. They were throwing heavily weighted sinkers with a bait of some sort into the heavy water from the spillway. My plan was to fish a run in the river downstream from them. The first few casts into the river were more exploratory than anything else. I was just working out the kinks from the last time I had fished. After a several casts and moving down stream a bit, I came across a section with an undercut bank that just looked really enticing to me. I was fishing with a floating jointed Rapala in the Rainbow Trout color. I cast the lure out into the stream and let it swim down the run. Nothing out in the deeper part of the run, but, my plan was too swim it up near the undercut bank on the retrieve. I watched closely as my lure rode along just sub-surface and reeled slowly as to keep the lure near the undercut bank as long as I possibly could. Suddenly, I felt the hit of a good trout. My plan had worked! After a tussle with the trout on the end of my line, I brought near shore at my feet where I could see it. It was a beautiful fall Brown Trout!

I brought it ashore and quickly as I could took my camera out and shot a quick picture of this Brown and then quickly released him to swim back to his undercut bank for another day and another time.

The fall fishing season is my favorite time of year. I love fishing for Brown Trout in the fall, and, as we know some big Brown Trout can be caught in the fall of the year as they prepare for the colder winter months to come. They are spawning and can be aggressive to protect their area. I do not fish directly over spawning beds, so let me make that clear. I do look for big Brown Trout, though!

In addition, the fall season is Elk hunting season. Nothing is more beautiful than to be outdoors in the fall of the year in the crisp air enjoying the beautiful color changes in our landscape and listening to a bugling elk off in the distance somewhere. I am not a hunter, as most of you know by know, however a bugling elk is one of the most beautiful sounds of the outdoors. Thought I would share a photo from my archives of a little ol’ Elk who came to visit one day while fishing.

While looking around on the ‘net tonight, I came across this very interesting piece of information and wanted to share it with all my readers. Not that I relish being in Grizzly bear country with a hungry bear,or any bear for that matter, but, this new outdoor “goodie” looks to be something very worthwhile to have if you are in bear country. Enjoy the read!

Keeping cold ones cold when camping in grizzly bear country may be getting a bit easier.

New coolers from a Florida company and a business in Texas that have passed federal and state tests for resistance to grizzlies are the first to be mass-produced. So, local officials willing, adventurers with a boat or a pack animal hefty enough to carry a cooler no longer must hang it 10 feet off the ground to comply with food-storage rules in the backcountry that grizzlies inhabit.

Wildlife managers have long required that campers in grizzly territory keep food and beverages out of bears’ reach – in a vehicle, building or special locker; suspended from a tree or pole; or protected by portable electric fencing. The rule, which applies when campsites are unattended and in some places when campers are asleep, is intended to keep humans safe and bears healthy.

Hanging a cooler is an especially “significant project” at the start of a trip, when it’s full and can weigh 100 pounds, said outfitter Brett Todd, who puts clients on horses – and their gear on mules – for trips into Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

Five orphaned and nuisance bears who make their home at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone tested the new coolers for a group called the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee, which includes representatives from U.S. and Canadian wildlife agencies and from the states of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington.

The bears beat and scratched at each cooler for an hour. Despite smelling the peanut butter and fish stored inside, they failed to break into the boxes, made of the same tough plastic used in kayaks. Even the 100-pound weights that human tormentors dropped on the boxes didn’t crack them open.

Short term, this was bad news for the bears: No treats.

But in the long term, the test results were as important for grizzlies as for humans. Bears that grow accustomed to finding food and beverages at human encampments are often declared a nuisance and eventually moved or even killed.

The hope is bear-resistant coolers will prevent more bears from learning that coolers can be sources of food. Even if bears can detect the smell of food, they are unlikely to stay interested in a cooler if they cannot break into it quickly, said Jack Rich, another Bob Marshall outfitter.

“It’s not about the smell, it’s about the reward,” Rich said of bears’ motivation, noting that campsite food preparation areas and cooks’ clothing have food odors. “We’re not going to eliminate the smells associated with food. We have to make sure we don’t have the bears associating that smell with a good reward.”

Mel

Writing from my Blog Cabin about fishing the waters of Eastern Idaho for whatever is pulling on the end of my line!

Why I Blog!

“I don’t want anyone to hold my hand. I want to unchain my soul. I don’t want to lean on anyone. I am getting much to old for that. No contracts or promises here, just my own self made security. If I write something poorly on my blog or offend someone, I am man enough to accept that. As I write for this blog, I will hold my head up high and keep my eyes and ears open to the outdoor view and to the voices that relate to me.

I do not know what tomorrow might bring, so I can not write about the future. So it is my plan to plant my own garden and to decorate my own soul, instead of waiting for someone else to bring me flowers. I will be strong and I will endure and my blog really does have self worth.” Mel

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